The present invention relates generally to the field of webpage delivery, and more particularly to asynchronous HTTP communications.
HTTP (“Hypertext Transfer Protocol”) is widely known as the application protocol that acts as the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web. HTTP functions as a request-response protocol in a computing model with a client—such as a web browser—and a server—such as an application running on a computer hosting a web page (or “webpage”).
Asynchronous HTTP calls are HTTP calls that allow a web client to send data to and retrieve data from a server in the background (or asynchronously) without interfering with the display and behavior of the existing webpage. Many webpages today include multiple dynamically delivered areas delivered by asynchronous HTTP calls using technologies such as AJAX (or “Asynchronous JavaScript and XML”) and AJAJ (or “Asynchronous JavaScript and JSON”). JSON (or “JavaScript Object Notation”) is an open standard format that uses human-readable text to transmit data objects including attribute-value pairs, and is typically used to transmit data between servers and webpages (or web applications). (Note: the term “JavaScript” may be subject to trademark rights in various jurisdictions throughout the world and are used here only in reference to the products or services properly denominated by the marks to the extent that such trademark rights may exist.)
Websockets are known. As used herein, a websocket is any simultaneously full-duplex (that is, asynchronous) communications channel that operates over a TCP connection. A popular example of a way to implement a websocket is to use the WebSocket protocol, which is typically used for communications between web browsers and web servers, but can also be used in any client or server application.